Child Life Specialists

Emotional support to improve your child’s hospital experience

A hospital visit or stay can be challenging for anyone, but children often find it especially difficult. They may not understand what is going on or why. Our child life specialists help children understand why they’re at the hospital and help them cope with their illnesses or injuries.

Child life specialists offer a number of benefits to our patients, their families, and our providers, including:

Advocacy

Easier collaboration among medical disciplines

Emotional support

Our child life specialists help your child feel at ease, bringing fun and laughter to the hospital environment so your child can participate in his or her treatment and feel better sooner. All our child life specialists have completed extensive training and are professionally certified through the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP).

We are unable to use or distribute denominational or religious materials.

We prefer only new and unwrapped items, but in some cases, we can accept gently used donations of cleanable toys (no used stuffed animals or fabric items, please). Please contact us if you are unsure whether we can accept your donation.

We will gladly work with you if you are an individual or group that wants to conduct a service project to benefit our program.

Shadowing and Questions About Child Life

If you are interested in the field of child life, we offer two opportunities to explore this profession. The first is a three-hour shadowing opportunity to observe a child life specialist at work. To qualify for this shadowing opportunity, you must:

Be at least 18

Have tuberculosis (TB) testing with negative results within the last year

Have up-to-date vaccines, including MMR, tetanus/diphtheria, varicella, and a current flu shot (within flu season)

If you don’t meet these requirements, you can still learn about the field of child life. You can speak with one of our child life specialists about:

A typical day in child life

Pathways to a career in child life

Questions and answers about the field

Please call our office at 617-243-5691 if you are interested in either of these opportunities.

Internships

We currently offer internships in the fall and spring semesters. For the fall internship, we accept applications from anyone who is interested, including unaffiliated students. For the spring internship, we currently only accept students enrolled in Boston University’s Child Life program. We follow the ACLP’s recommended internship application and offer dates.